HAMILTON, Ont. — Calgary Stampeders fans may want to send June Jones a bottle of wine.

Ignore what happened at Tim Hortons Field on Friday night and take a look at the bigger picture, and it seems the Hamilton Tiger-Cats head coach may have played a major role in bringing a couple key players Calgary’s way.

Jones coached both Bo Levi Mitchell and defensive end Ja’Gared Davis at Southern Methodist University, and said he offered both players some sage advice as they prepared for life after graduation.

“Both Bo Levi and Ja’Gared, when they asked me about the pros, I said, ‘both of you guys need to go to Canada, don’t waste your time in the NFL,’ ” Jones said in the lead-up to Friday night’s game in Hamilton. “Bo listened to me and he signed before the NFL Draft, Ja’Gared, those guys always want to try to go.

“To be honest with you, he’s a great outside pass rusher, I thought. Well, (Bill) Belichick even brought him in and he hung around with a couple good coaches who see what I see in him, too.

“I just knew that his size, eventually, they’ve got a 6-foot-5 guy doing the same thing.”

Mitchell doesn’t remember any specific conversation with Jones that caused him to decide to pursue the CFL — and has been open in the past about dreaming of an NFL shot at some point — but it’s clear he holds his college coach in high regard.

Even before he started at SMU, Mitchell had been interested in playing for Jones and committed to playing for him at Hawaii before Jones took the job at the Texas school.

“Yeah, he tricked me,” Mitchell said. “Originally, growing up in Texas, my original thought was — and I love Texas, nothing against it — I was just like, ‘I want to go somewhere different, try something out.’ ”

The two have kept in touch in the time since Mitchell transferred from SMU to Eastern Washington University and continue to share a mutual respect.

Davis, meanwhile, remains a player Jones describes in glowing terms.

“He kind of reminded me of James ‘Quick’ Parker as an edge rush guy,” Jones said. “He’s pretty special, I think, as a pass-rusher.”

TERRIBLE IDEA

When the CFL announced earlier this season that coaches would only be able to challenge one play per game — regardless of the outcome of their challenge — it seemed like a good idea.

It’s beginning to feel like that’s not the case.

In the first quarter on Friday, Ticats quarterback Jeremiah Masoli threw a pass down the sideline that was caught by Jalen Saunders.

Well, it was caught, but Saunders was clearly out-of-bounds in the eyes of everyone in the stadium except for the referee.

Stampeders head coach Dave Dickenson challenged the obviously bad call, and the reception was overturned.

Unfortunately, challenging an obviously terrible call in the first quarter meant he had no option of doing it again later in the game because of the new rules.

That is dumb. So dumb.

If coaches are going to be limited to only one challenge per game, the standard of refereeing around the CFL needs to drastically improve. Situations like Friday night shouldn’t happen.

EVANS RESPONDS

In the early-going on Friday, it seemed like the Ticats might be targeting Stamps corner Ciante Evans’ side of the field.

Not a good idea.

The Ticats may have found a little success looking to the left side of the field in the first quarter, but Evans made them pay on the very first play of the second quarter when he intercepted a pass from Masoli and ran it 30 yards downfield.

The Stampeders defensive backfield is so good that it’s often tough to recognize individual performances, but Evans has four interceptions on the season and deserves credit for making the Ticats pay.

SHORT YARDAGE

The Ticats probably won’t make the playoffs this season, but if head coach Jones sticks around next year, Hamilton fans might have a lot to cheer about. He has completely transformed the team . . . The Stamps dodged a bullet in the third quarter when the Ticats opted to go for it on third down, deep in Calgary territory. Masoli couldn’t connect with Luke Tasker on the play. It probably should have been a touchdown . . . Marquay McDaniel went down in the fourth quarter. The injury didn’t look overly-serious, but and you can bet that the media won’t stop asking about his condition for a long, long time.

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